Lehigh Path
Dennison Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Until about 1800, a Native American footpath passed through here. It was one of several linking Indian villages in the Delaware and Susquehanna River drainage systems. This path originated at the Forks of the Delaware River (near Easton) and proceeded northwestward to Wyoming (near Wilkes-Barre) on the Susquehanna. The path's steep mountains were used by the Lenni-Lenape and Susquehannock.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Long before roads crossed these mountains, a Native American footpath threaded through this rugged country, one strand in a network of trails linking villages of the Delaware and Susquehanna watersheds. The Lehigh Path ran from the Forks of the Delaware near present-day Easton northwestward to the Wyoming Valley on the Susquehanna near Wilkes-Barre. The Lenni-Lenape and Susquehannock traveled its steep grades until roughly 1800, when European settlement finally displaced the old ways of moving through the land.
Why it matters
These Indigenous trails were the original highways of the Northeast, and many later roads and rail lines still trace the routes Native peoples surveyed on foot generations earlier.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Wapwallopen
Conyngham Township, PA · est. 1948
Near the mouth of Wapwallopen Creek once stood a Native town at a crossroads of ancient travel. Here the great foot routes of the region converged—the paths linking the Wyoming Valley, the north–south "Warrior's Path," and the trails reaching toward the Juniata and West Branch Susquehanna valleys. Long before roads and rails, such junctions made a place important, funneling trade, migration, and war parties through a single point.
Warriors Path
Union Township, PA · est. 1994
Long before roads crossed these ridges, Native travelers moved along well-worn footpaths, and one of them intersected here — running from the Great Island at present-day Lock Haven, past the Indian town of Muncy, and through a mountain gap to meet the Great Warriors Path at Shickshinny. In 1742 the Moravian leader Count Zinzendorf followed this route after meeting Madame Montour at Otstonwakin, seeking her influence to bring Christian missions to the region's tribes.
Nescopeck
Salem Township, PA · est. 1949
From the mouth of Nescopeck Creek, a Native trail struck eastward over the mountains, running by way of present-day Hazleton to the Lehigh River near Mauch Chunk and onward to the Forks of the Delaware at Easton. It was one strand in the dense web of Indigenous paths that laced eastern Pennsylvania long before European roads. Such routes carried trade, war parties, and treaty delegations across an otherwise trackless landscape.
Wyoming Path
Bloomsburg, PA · est. 1949
The Wyoming Path was one of the great Native highways of colonial Pennsylvania, tying the villages of the Wyoming Valley to the diplomatic hub of Shamokin, at the forks of the Susquehanna where Sunbury now stands. In 1742 the Moravian nobleman Count Nicolaus von Zinzendorf traveled this route after meeting the Shawnees at Wyoming, part of the Moravians' remarkable effort to plant Christian missions among the region's Native peoples. The trail carried traders, missionaries, and diplomacy alike through a contested frontier.